264 • IRGUN
from Irish ports. A few months later, the Irish Department of Exter-
nal Affairs requested a meeting withMI5. In August 1938, Captain
Guy Liddellthen met Joe Walshe and the Irish high commissioner
in London, John Dulanty, who expressed concerned about Nazis in
Dublin. A further meeting was held in September at which Liddell
supplied an MI5 report on Nazi activity in Eire, recommending the
creation of acounterintelligenceservice under the Ministry of De-
fence, headed by a senior officer with direct access to the minister.
The organization would need to monitor the arrivals and departure
of foreigners; maintain surveillance on them while they were in the
country; and intercept mail, cables, and telephone communications.
MI5’s memorandum expressed a readiness to liaise closely with
the new agency, G-2, which would be headed by Colonel Liam Ar-
cher. During September 1938 Archer held more meetings with Se-
curity Service officers. His organization had to start from scratch
under conditions of the greatest secrecy, without experience, staff,
or resources and of course was also subject to the vagaries of Irish
politics.
Throughout World War II, Colonel Archer and his successor, Dan
Bryan, maintained the closest relationship with MI5’s small Irish
Section, designated B1(h) and then B9, headed byCecil Liddell, and
itsSecret Intelligence Servicecounterpart, headed by a former MI5
officer, Jane Sissmore. MI5 assisted with evidence for the arrest and
imprisonment of Nazi spies, either parachuted into Ireland or landed
by U-boats, and campaigned to isolate the German Legation, which
was equipped with a wireless transmitter.
Since World War II, G-2 and the Garda Special Branch have main-
tained liaison links with MI5 and the Special Branch, chiefly for the
exchange of information about terrorist suspects.IRGUN.A Jewish terrorist organization inPalestineheaded by Mena-
chim Begin and his deputy, Yaacov Meridor. An abbreviation of
Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Irgun took a more militant line in the campaign
for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and consisted mainly of immi-
grants of Polish extraction. Although the Irgun temporarily sus-
pended anti-British operations during World War II, leaving the
terrorism to theStern Gang, they targeted the Palestine Police once
the Nazis surrendered and made a daring attack on the police head-